A provisional cast-on is a temporary cast-on that can be undone later to leave live stitches that you can work with. You can cast on provisionally with any method using scrap yarn, but I love a crochet method. It’s straightforward to work and unzips easily to release the live stitches.

When the novelty yarn craze hit in 2005/2006 and fuzzy scarves were all the rage, I walked into a store and said, "I'm going to buy two balls of fuzzy yarn, make my fuzzy scarf, and THAT WILL BE IT." I didn't need more things to do and more things to stash.

Well. You probably have a good idea how that turned out.